Bob Carr, 66, played radio’s Willis the Guard

Bob Carr was never a household name in Atlanta radio. But back in the 1970s and ’80s, everyone in the city knew his radio character Willis the Guard.

Mr. Carr created the redneck good ol’ boy in 1973 at WQXI-AM and became part of Atlanta’s biggest morning team from the mid-1970s through the late 1980s, mostly at sister station 94Q (now Star 94).

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AJC file

Bob Carr (left) ‘was Larry the Cable Guy before there was cable,’ his radio partner, Gary McKee, said.

“I would have just been another morning jock if it hadn’t been for him,” said Gary McKee, who led the morning show. “He was Larry the Cable Guy before there was cable. He was able to walk the thin line between self-parody and lifestyle parody. Everyone has a little bit of redneck in them.”

Robert E. Carr, 66, of Chamblee died Monday of lung disease at St. Joseph’s Hospital. The funeral is 6 p.m. Wednesday at H.M. Patterson & Son Oglethorpe Hill Chapel.

Mr. Carr was born in Alabama and graduated from high school in Columbus, but his real voice was resonant and absent any Southern accent at all.

“He actually had a real soothing radio voice when he wasn’t doing Willis,” said his wife of 39 years, Judy, of Chamblee. They met while he was in the Air Force in Biloxi, Miss.

In fact, Mr. Carr’s low-key persona was nothing like Willis the Guard, who brought an exuberant, drawlin’, blue-collar touch to the show. “Some days I had to sit down after the show, I was laughing so hard,” Mr. McKee said.

And even when 94Q added a female sidekick to the show, Carr never expressed any jealousy or threat.

“He never sensed I was usurping his role,” said Yetta Levitt, who joined the show in 1978. “We did spar a bit. I represented the liberal female. Willis was conservative. That was part of the schtick.” Mr. Carr’s son, David Carr of Roswell, said he got to feel his dad’s fame growing up, taking special pride when Bob showed up to David’s fourth-grade career day.

“I remember the first thing he said to the students was, ‘Don’t ask me how much money I make!’ Naturally, that was the first thing they asked.”

When the Gary McKee show disbanded in 1988, Mr. Carr never returned to the airwaves and retired Willis the Guard.

“It was a big blow to him when they let him go.” said David, who is the drummer for popular Atlanta Christian rock band Third Day. “I never heard him do Willis ever again.”

After radio, Mr. Carr spent the next 17 years as a projectionist at the Midtown Cinemas (now called the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema) before lung disease forced him into early retirement.

Other survivors include his mother, Cleo of Geneva, Ala.; two daughters, Ryan Gausman of Chamblee and Ashley Walter of Cumming; and two grandchildren.